Day 59 -- I'd Stop To Say Hi But I'm Not That Polite.

                             I awakened alongside the need to obtain a blazer.  I contemplated about the abundant methods that one could possibly gain a blazer to call their own, and after an extensive debate in my vessel of intelligence, I decided that I should trade British Pounds for it.  I invited my pal Holly to join me on this venture; quickly got a positive confirmation.  With headphones in pearl-pinned ear, I strolled to the train station, just a few minutes down the quaint road, to meet her in the bustling city of Manchester.  And bustling it was; stuffed with old army dudes playing saxophones for some “Army Appreciation Day” or something sweet and jiggy like that.  Because I deeply appreciate the army, I eavesdropped on one of their pleasant cover songs while being consumed with trying to track down Holly (I’m not being sarcastic at this point in writing.  I do deeply appreciate the army!  So appreciative that I should have ran that patriotic hoe-down.  For goodness’ sake my brother is reporting in three months to the American army.  So stop it.).  Once she found me, we…shopped.  How else can I convey that? 

                                One thing I love about England is that they have mega summer sales!  Not dinky ones either; the serious take-no-crap-from-nobody type of sales.  I’m talking 60% off everything.  I know, you’re dying to know if I bought a blazer or not, right?  Well yes.  Yes I did.  Take a little look at the store chico.  I adore this shop.  Once I actually wear the darn thing I’ll put up a picture to show yall.  (Yall=my millions of dedicated followers.) ---------> 8. Great.

http://www.zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category/uk/en/zara-S2011-s/102003/Blazers

                                Once we became hungry, we gathered some sandwiches, grapes, and a pasta salad from a grocery market, also by trading British Pounds, and dined on a street curb while discussing the joy that The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints www.mormon.org has brought us.  It all started when our seeing machines fell upon this terribly miserable, depressing looking girl creep by us.  We both knew that she would probably be so much happier if she knew about the true gospel.  As I sit here writing this, I realize that we should have caught up to her and shared our delightful knowledge with her.  Wow I’m a selfish gal.  I’ll work on that.

                              We visited a lovely bookstore!  And I found myself a real treat:  Ambrose and Brinkley’s Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938.  I purchased this desired treat.  I really am in love with this book so far.  It’s about the different wars that America has been involved with and how each president dealt with it differently.  It’s a very informative, interesting, and rather easy read!  Recommend the book to all:  Check.

                                That evening, I relaxed in my homey room and watched the best movie of all time:  The Prince of Egypt.  No joke!  I haven’t seen it in so many years, so I lay in bed while eating violet flavored sweets (Yeah, flavored like the flower: Violets.  They taste like how they smell…like violet.) and enjoying the cartoon.  Once it finished, I had a two second pity party, started it over, and then realized that I didn’t know what was fact or fiction about Moses’ story in the movie!  I opened up Exodus and began reading.  The movie stuck really close to the truth!  I was more than impressed.  But then again, why would they want to change such remarkable events?  That’s right; they would not.  They did not…except for some bits.

Day 58 -- Les Miserables

      Samuel and I had a lovely picnic in the park today!  Last night, Michelle made cupcakes incognito as ice cream cones!  Brilliant idea she had!  (To learn more about her buns, visit day 60.)  There, Samuel found his friend, Ben.  They played for three hours!  So I sat and talked to Ben's mom.

       I babysat the kids tonight!  We ordered pizza.  Then we watched the 25th year appreciation play on DVD. I am in love with this play so much!  I cannot even describe how incredible it is!  Well I probably could...but right now it's about 1 in the morning.  Use your imagination people.

Day 57 -- Insta-Bananna and Strange Whip

      Institute!  I went again.  Lesson on our lives before we came here to earth!  I quite enjoyed it.  After the lesson, we had a dessert competition.  My team crushed biscuits (cookies) then put a layer of banana on top.  I ate the two left-over biscuits...I know, greedy.  Then covered that with a chocolate mousse whip type of thing.  I ate some.  We didn't win.  I know, it sounded so delicious didn't it?

Day 56 -- 8 Things I Love About England.

        I know, it says 10 reasons.  Well....The bottom two reasons mixed together awkwardly so I cropped it out, don't mind me.  Not that I couldn't come up with two more!  I can come up with millions more!

Day 55 -- The Drawbacks From Plotting to Be Paige.

      Because I'm such a lame person I forgot to take notes of what I did this week.  AGAIN.  Sorry mom; I'm letting you down with my lack of detail!  So instead, I'll share something else interesting about myself.  Let me think for a moment.

      I just stole this from my old facebook page when I was going to school in Rexburg, Idaho.  It's still as true as ever.


"I hate it when I'm dozy in bed and the sheets are all unfastened around my feet. So therefore I must take my feet out from under the covers. Consequently, my feet do indeed become freezing (because I currently inhabit Idaho) while the rest of my body is really hot. I love that feeling. But then that super delighted, hot-n-cold sensation wares off like those nifty ice packs…and I’m left with having to straighten my sheets. Whoa holy drawbacks from wanting to be Paige. Shoot I know…they’re out there."

Day 54 -- I love the U.S.A.

         Rebekah and Jacob showed me a really funny clip of Michael Mcintyre making fun of Americans.  To be honest, it was quite hilarious if you find making fun of the word "sidewalk" amusing.

       I have many opinions about this clip that I would love to share with you all...  However I will spare you my thoughts of fear that I may come off as a bit rude towards Mr. Mcintyre and the rest of the people who believe that the British generously provided us with the English language.  Okay.  I can't help myself.  This is true; British citizens who were escaping religious ridicule from Great Britain came over to the New England area on the Mayflower in 1620, resulting in the continuation and spreading of English.  Throughout the years, "British English" developed into "American English"; just like how everything else in the world evolves over time.  So Mike, are you saying that one Englishman walked straight off of the Mayflower and headed directly for an already existent "American" to teach him how to speak English?  How interesting.  Just one side note:  Who are you talking about when you say "Americans" anyway?  The African Americans?  Asian Americans?  People from Brazil or France or Mozambique?  I'm just letting you know that the United States of America is the greatest melting pot of all time.  So when you make fun of Americans, you are making fun of the Indians, Japanese, Latinos, Islanders, and every other nationality out there...or are you referring to the pure white people (I am a pretty much pure Caucasian); who are probably descendants from Great Britain?  Just wondering.
               Okay.  You all probably think that I took this clip wayyyyyyyy too seriously for any good.  And honestly, I didn't.  I'm not offended in any way, but I just thought that it was fun to take these jokes seriously.  Does that make sense?   

Day 53 -- Migraine?

                 Michelle and Andrew gave talks in my ward this afternoon!  Consequently, I got to have the kids sit by me all through sacrament and stop them from acting like hooligans.  I LOVED it!  Right during the opening announcements, Samuel pulled my face down to my level and whispered, “That boy behind you looks like a vampire in church.  He is a vampire in church!”  Keep in mind that the whole back row could hear him!  I began laughing so hard that I had tears streaming down my face.  After the service was over, the Bishop even came over to me and asked what I was laughing about!  I guess I didn't keep the whole laughing thing on the down low.  So a few minutes later, Samuel managed to squeeze his way through my arms and climb onto Luke’s shoulders!  While almost falling off into the row behind us, I grabbed him and tugged him off, making us all look like crazies.  Towards the end of the last talk, Samuel ran down the aisle, thumbs in ears with fingers spread out, and began yelling, “You can’t catch me!”

                                I caught him.

                                Church was going great until my right got all blurry for no reason at all.  I got more and more nauseous from the headache I got from not being able to see properly!  So I got extremely sick and had my friend take me home as quickly as possible!  I really appreciated the lift.  I got home, had Rebekah find me some medicine, went to sleep for four hours, then made rice with sugar and butter!  I also made a can of corn.  And the delicious custard.  I really loved eating the mixed matched of food; it all tasted so good to me!  Then I got all better.  The end.

Day 52 -- This Isn't Baseball.

        Today was my ward's sports day activity!  I really did enjoy my time with everyone.  Plus, it was my first time ever playing cricket!  So there I was; up to bat.  I hit the ball the first time, but started running to the nonexistant first base!!!  In cricket, you run straight, and go back and forth between two wickets (pole-ish things).  I still cannot believe that I forgot the minor detail.  I ended up getting zero points for my team.  Baseball is so much better.  I don't feel bad for saying that.

My team minus one.  We were called "The Red Cords" after my pants.  I mean trousers. 

Yeah...You can tell that I was trying really hard.

Day 51 -- Classes

         I signed up for classes at BYU-Idaho this morning!  I was so excited to get all the ones I wanted.  Here they are:  Old Testament, Advanced Writing/ Critical Thinking, Political Parties/Interest Groups, Foreign Government, College Algebra, and Social Science Statistics!  I'm getting so excited to start classes again in September!
         I also made pancakes for lunch.  I used krusteez batter though because I forgot my dad's recipe.  Loved them!
         That night I went to Dustin's house and watched a movie!  Yes I did.

Day 50 -- Best Pancake of All Time.

             I skyped my wonderful dad.  I told him that I wanted a homemade pancake recipe...so he made me a youtube video of how to make it!  My dad has always made THE BEST pancakes; better than Denny's for sure.  No contest.  I absolutely love this video for many reasons, one of them being that he is wearing his prescription sunglasses in the house.  Dad:  Did you forget where you put your normal glasses?  There is also one part where he says, "And you don't want to burn the pancake; That is for sure."  I couldn't stop laughing when he said that!  Maybe it's only funny because I know what my dad is like...but of course we wouldn't want to burn it!  So funny.  So here is the video of the homemade American pancake!  (For some reason the video box won't work. So Just click on the link)
http://www.youtube.com/user/jbartyn2

            That night I went to institute with Dustin.  Elder Cannon gave a wonderful lesson on prayer!
         

Day 49 -- Are You Choking?!

            Cars is what's up for this week.  Playing with cars on my knees for hours is not that exciting, especially when I can't even hold the car the way I want to; Samuel is very particular of how we play.  It's so cute actually. I am getting a tad sick of playing with cars...and I feel bad for telling Samuel that I don't want to play, so I always get suckered into it!  No matter how many different, fun ideas I give him for us to do, he just wants cars. I guess it could be worse...Wow.  I just realized how great I have it!  I get to play cars all day long with one of the cutest kids of all time!  I'm extremely lucky.
            Once the boys got home, they found the chocolate bars.  As Samuel was eating his, he suddenly stopped making approving noises, "Yummmm.  Yum.  Yum yum yum.  Mmmm."  His mouth was stuffed with the whole mini chocolate bar.  I calmly, but speedily asked if he was choking.  Because there was no answer (and he wasn't currently watching television which usually results with me not getting an answer because hes too concentrated on what is on the screen), I studied him for .005 seconds before I threw my arm around his waist and tipped him upside down while I smacked twice right between his shoulder blades; simultaneously yelling, "Spit it out!"
            It probably took four seconds until the slobber-covered chocolate bar was spat onto the ground.  Then it was another two seconds before Martha came and licked it up.  I quickly asked Sam if he was okay, and he just had a huge smile on his face and said, "I couldn't breathe."  Then he laughed!  I don't think he learned his lesson about shoving tons of food in his mouth.  Maybe he hasn't made the connection that choking results in death.

Day 48 -- Sunny!

         Today was BEAUTIFUL!  Samuel and I walked to Sainsbury's, a market, and bought a whole bunch of treats to send to my family!  Samuel had so much energy that he ran the whole way there.  When the boys got home, we went to the park!  Michelle made American pancakes for tea!  Loved them, it made me feel at home!

Day 47 -- Too Amazing For Words

      Monday.  Well because it is currently Wednesday while I'm writing this...I don't remember what we did.  Probably something way too amazingly fun for words.

Day 46 -- Sunday

        Church day!  I love church.  And I just realized that I haven't even spoken about my church on this blog yet!  Even though I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this know about the true gospel...anyway.  I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I love everything about it.  If you're not a member, then go get baptized, stat!!!

http://mormon.org/

        

Day 45 -- Saturday

       I slept in :)  Then me, Elena, Rebekah, and Michelle went to the Trafford Centre to shop for a new interview outfit for Elena!  I didn't do anything else that day, I was getting a little sick.

Day 44 -- Cricket!

      Dustin took me to a professional cricket game!  Lancashire Lightening vs. Yorkshire Carnegie.  I voted for York, because that's my favorite city here!  And Dustin voted for Lancashire because he lives close to them or something.  It was so cool!  I'm still not very sure how the whole game works perfectly...but it was fun to watch. I mean it's no baseball...but still pretty interesting.

Day 43 -- Scene It

         The boys and I pretty much stayed home and played games all day because Samuel has that poorly arm.  We had fun playing Disney's Scene It and watching movies.
         That night, Michelle brought me back a...I forgot what they're called.  But all it is, is chips (fries) sandwiched between a hamburger-like (but sweeter) bun!  So darn simple but so good!!!  I want one everyday.

Day 42 -- Broken Arm.

     Today the three boys and myself went to the Wacky Warehouse!  Samuel jumped off the slide...and broke his arm.  He was such a trooper though!

Day 41 -- Museum!

            I decided to take the three boys to the Manchester Museum today!  We walked to the train station, missed the direct train by 12 seconds, so consequently had to take two trains to finally end up at the correct train station.  From there, we walked down the street, that reminded me of Los Angeles, and strolled into the museum with any trouble!  We had a blast!  There were so many animal exhibits and interesting things to look at.  Perfect for young boys I think.
              We ate at McDonalds after :)

We didn't see the Do Not Touch sign until after...

ME!

James wants to be a photographer so he kept insisting on taking photos of us.

On our way home, I found my favorite flower!  James took photos of them.